Rarely has the benefit of the product and the diss to the competition been so cleverly entwined as in DIRECTV’s “When you have to (do something annoying because Cable sucks) you end up (worst case scenario). Don’t (worse case scenario). Get rid of cable. Upgrade to DIRECTV” campaign. If a mini-story is one great ways to sell a product and humor is another, these ads are the best of both worlds because they are damn funny and travel a very long story arc in 30 seconds. And because one of the oldest principles of comedy is that there is very little funnier than someone else’s slapstick misfortune, the arc is inevitably catastrophic for the protagonist. You can practically sense the creatives at Grey advertising working backwards from the outcome to get to the benefit: “Let’s see: a guy has to sell his hair to a wig shop–how do we get him there and blame Cable for it?” And like the Dos Equis campaign, DIRECTV also uses a uber-serious narrator with great pipes and intonation (in this case, the 60 Minutes man) to give the spot a faux serious documentary/PSA feel that perfectly plays off of the crazy on screen action.
Like only the very best campaigns, we’re actually left hoping for new spots while never tiring of these classics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm76JhMa61w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoG0O9xH6-U